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“Ding, ding.” Gary showed off his toothless gums. “Now perhaps you understand why I stole Ganymede’s little sippy cup.”
He held out his hand. In a flash of light, a ceramic vessel appeared floating above his palm, but it looked more like a flying saucer than a drinking cup. The bowl was wide and shallow with two oversize handles. I was pretty sure my mom had a salad bowl like that.
The exterior gleamed with black-and-gold scenes of the gods at a feast, their silhouettes outlined in threads of Celestial bronze. It was a fancy piece of pottery, but I wasn’t sure how anyone could pour nectar out of it.
“The chalice of the gods,” I guessed.
I wanted to add thatof courseI understood why Gary had stolen it. Unfortunately, I didn’t.
“So... since you’re already immortal, would the cup make you younger?” I asked. “Or has it been your lifelong dream to serve drinks?”
“Oh, that’s disappointing....” Gary closed his fist and the chalice disappeared. “Perhaps I should have started with Annabeth Chase. I understand she’s smart.”
I couldn’t really get angry. If I were looking for someone who could guess my diabolic master plan so I didn’t have to do the standard villain monologue, I would have started with Annabeth, too. On the other hand...
“Wait a minute,” I said. “Youseparated us with the nectar drops.”
I glanced across the park. Annabeth was still watching the chess match. Grover was still listening to a tree. They didn’t look like they were in immediate danger, but they were moving at super-slow speed, like flies in sap that was rapidly hardening to amber.
“What are you doing to us?” I demanded. “Picking us off one by one? Afraid to take us all at once?”
Gary snorted. “I could turn all three of you into grave dust with a snap of my fingers. Normally I would, because you’re trying to spoil my fun. But since Ganymede sentPercy Jacksonafter me... well, I thought I would give you a chance. I hoped you ofalldemigods might understand why I took the chalice. If you don’t, though, I can just disintegrate you now and move on to your friends. Perhaps they’ll do better.”
“No!” I yelped—not just because I didn’t want to be grave dust, but because I couldn’t let him hurt Annabeth or Grover. “I totally get it. Really.”
Gary narrowed his eyes. “I don’t believe you.”
I didn’t believe me, either. Curse the smart old guy.
I tried to imagine what Annabeth would do. I wondered what Grover would do. Then, because my brain was weird, I wondered whatIwould do in the situation I was in.
Something in that mass of cerebral seaweed must have clicked, or squished, or at least sloshed around a little.
“You’re the god of old age,” I said. “And the cup makes mortals immortal.”
Gary smirked, nodding at me to go on.
“Which keeps people from aging,” I said. “And you don’t like that.”
“Ihatethat,” Gary snarled.
“Right,” I said. “Because people are supposed to get old. Not get promoted to godhood like...” I thought about Ganymede, all young and handsome and wandering miserably around my school cafeteria, filling people’s cups. “You want to humiliate Ganymede to make an example. You figured I would understand, because I once turned down immortality.”
Gary gave me a little bow, showing off the dark splotches on his cranium. “Perhaps you are not a total fool after all.”
“Thanks,” I said. “My goal for the week was not to be a total fool.”
“Ganymede has no business being a god!” Gary said. “Any object that grants humans immortality is odious and wrong. You are all meant to wither and die and return to dust. That is your purpose!”
“Yay for purpose.”
“You were the first demigod in millennia to turn down immortality,” Gary said. “I respect that. You get me.”
“This has been a nice bonding experience,” I said. “I think you’ve proven your point. Can I have the cup back now?”
Gary glowered. “You can’t be serious. Why would you complete this foolish quest? Walk away! Let Ganymede be punished! Let the gods lose their precious chalice so they have one less way to pass on the curse of immortality to others!”
“I totally would,” I said. “Except I need a letter of recommendation for college. And I promised Ganymede. Besides, do you really think he is the one to punish? He didn’t ask to get kidnapped by Zeus, right?”
